- For the Powered by the Apocalypse game, see Dungeon World.
DungeonWorld (DW) is a low-fantasy role-playing game that has been published since 1991. Its first edition, Dungeon World Adventures, was created by Bannister Nicholas.
Dungeon World was published by EFRGames from 1991 til present.
Editions of DungeonWorld[]
Several different editions of DungeonWorld has been produced since 1991. The most recent edition in the works is known as Dungeon Delvers Twelve.
The First Edition was an amalgamation of the rules of Dragon Warriors and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, using a combination of d20 and d100 with Warhammer's purchase state system. 100 copies of the rulebook were printed and sold at the Kids Games Club "Escape From Reality Games".
In 1993, the Second Edition brought in skills lists from Rolemaster, traits and flaws from Ars Magicka, and rounded out the weapons from several historical documents, including This England by I. Tenen, M.A. Looking at the Skills structure of Vampire: The Masquerade and using the skill advancement system someone akin to the computer game Daggerfall.
The Third Edition, printed in 1996 and reworked in 2001, did away with a direct copy of each system, and replaced with its own system structured from lists of skills, spells, items and statistics derived from the amalgamation of its 1st and 2nd editions. replacing its many varied dice structures with an open ended 2d12 system. In some ways, this was considered the true edition by players, yet it retained its characteristics list, many of the basic statistics, all of its combat structures, which were adopted later into the other rules for stealth, magic and gods, which each previously had their own rules and dice.
in 2005, while travelling around the world, the Designer reworked the statistics list, with so much of a difference, and mirroring Jungian personality lists, introduced several new lifestyles (classes), but cleaned up a lot of the existing complexity. This was in response to the myriad of players across the world, having tested the game at conventions, roleplay events, but also attendance at medieval society groups in Europe, by the Author. The Shift in the Roleplay community for less crunch and more player choice led to the Follow up version Dungeon Delvers Twelve.
DungeonWorld Concept[]
The underpinning concept of DungeonWorld, was a cleaner mathematical and physics based system, designed to give players a stable base to work from, and build characters of their own choice without limiting factors, but also with defined structural choices, to balance out the games mechanics with the narrative choices players make.
In this, GMs do not need to fudge dice to allow the plot to proceed, instead they can focus on being the 'bad guy' at the end of the adventure and let players adjust the dice if they so choose.
Players can defeat monsters with a quick wit, a well timed trap, a cleverly spoken word, or just convince them to depart and leave the dungeon, as much as by combat, magic, godly events and poisons. This allows GMs and players far more scope into political roleplay, with craft, barter, medicine and economics rules playing part, if and when players decide to use it.
The World of DungeonWorld[]
The underlying concept, is a world of ancient dungeons, sure, but also that this world has several hundreds, if not thousands of heroes, attempting to explore the dungeons, buying goods and services to access the dungeons all in the hope to bring back treasure, disrupt local economies by dumping millions of gold in coffers, Overthrow corrupt kings and politicians just to end up as corrupt replacements. Or worse, gods!